He is a former Ohio University associate provost, chief information officer and Silicon Valley retiree. Bill Sams is a man who has worn many cloaks.
Now, for the remainder of his $133,588 annual contract, Sams is an executive in residence or assistant to Charles Bird, vice president for university outreach and regional campuses.
Sams will oversee projects until they generate enough revenue to justify hiring a full-time administrator, Bird said.
OU Provost Kathy Krendl described Sams' new job as a project manager and added that the job is really targeted to generate revenue.
Sams will help lead, among other projects, the Kent State-OU Complete to Compete distance learning partnership, a new program announced in March 2006. The collaboration allows adults to complete degrees online and in classes at both Kent State and Ohio regional campuses.
It's somewhat unstructured G? but I like that
and that's my favorite way to work Sams said.
Bowing out
Even after creating OU's Go Mobile laptop program and starting the redevelopment of the Student Information System, Sams most likely will be remembered as the administrator in charge of OU's beleaguered IT department when more than a quarter million files containing personal information were stolen.
But the Marietta native didn't originally return to Southeast Ohio to work for the university. The CIO job simply fell into his lap.
In Fall 2004 Krendl asked Sams to become the fifth CIO in 10 years, a position that had been vacant for nearly two years.
While Sam was in office last year, hackers pried the identities of 173,000 individuals associated with the university, including all students enrolled since Fall 2001.
An independent report about the data theft released this past summer chastised leadership within the IT department for failing to address security problems. Sams resigned three weeks later in August, citing that he did not have the experience necessary to rebuild the IT department.
While Sams was allowed to finish out his contract, the university fired two other administrators for their supposed role in problems within the IT department. Todd Acheson and Tom Reid were fired after the report implicated them for contributing to a culture of conflict and neglect in the IT department.
In October, a university grievance committee found that Reid and Acheson were wrongly fired and recommended they be reinstated, a request that Krendl denied. Both men are suing the university to have full access to the report that prompted their termination.
Reid said that it was a mystery that the university would keep Sams on payroll even though he was in charge of the IT department when the theft occurred.
It's inexplicable Reid said.
Looking Ahead
Sams continued working as CIO until December, when the university named Shawn Ostermann, a Russ College of Engineering and Technology professor, as interim CIO. A national search for Sams' replacement yielded no results.
Sams is now in a much smaller office at Hanley Hall, focusing on his new job and not overseeing the reconstruction of the IT department. He retains his provost salary and benefits until his contract expires in 17 months.
He said he doesn't know what he'll be doing after that, and so far, the university has not offered him another job.
Doors open and I go through them
Sams said. It's not planning what door I'm going up to.
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Sean Gaffney
